EUROPE’S anti-refugee policies have reached new depths, a human rights organisation said today after detailing troubling conversations with the Maltese maritime authorities.

Last Friday afternoon, Alarm Phone, an activist network which provides support for people crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe, discovered that the Maltese Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC) allowed the EU-funded Libyan coastguard to intercept a refugee boat from within its search and rescue (SAR) zone.

Alarm Phone contacted Malta’s RCC after it was contacted by an overcrowded boat with nearly 50 people on board in distress.